Attitudes differ but the needs are the same
Thedifferences in attitudes that men and women bring to the provision of financial services are not that wide, rather, it appears that women are yet to have their needs met, creating opportunities for advice providers.
These are some of the findings that come out of a survey of just over 1000 people conducted by theFinancial Planning Association(FPA) in the US in late 2002.
The survey found women are less confident in their financial future, make less use of professional advisers then men, but when they are seeking education, more prefer to talk to someone compared with their male peers.
Just over a third of women stated they were ‘very confident’ when it comes to their financial future while 46 per cent of men said the same.
Of those who said they were ‘somewhat’ or ‘not very’ confident about their financial future, only 60 per cent of women said they would ever be confident while two thirds of men surveyed responded in the same way.
Similar figures prevailed when looking at the lack of knowledge people have about their finances and the use of professional financial advisers.
Once again, two thirds of men stated they had worked with a financial planner, accountant, personal banker, insurance agent, stockbroker, or estate planning attorney in the past year.
However, this figure was still only at 60 percent for women.
The chief executive of the US FPA, Janet McCallen, says despite the growing financial power of women, these figures showed there were still unmet needs in the areas of financial planning and education for women.
The survey did offer some positive news for financial planners after it showed that women have a preference to talk with someone to learn more.
The results showed that while both men and women read publications and watch television programmes, 53 per cent of women wished to communicate face-to-face compared to only 47 per cent of men who seemed to show a much stronger leaning to the Internet.
A third of men were more likely to scan the Internet for information compared to less than 25 per cent of women.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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